apologies for the delayed response. lots of distractions recently...
So Sweets...thinking 2021 is the year of the keg in the hatchhold.
you'll be thanksful you made the jump. kegging is easier than bottling, but it's not effort-free.. still plenty of cleaning and sanitizing to do, but you're only doing it to one large vessel instead of 50 small ones (although kegs needs to be periodically taken apart, inspected and have the rubber seals replaced - called "rebuilding a keg").
one advantage or disadvantage of kegging, depending on your personality, is that your beer is no longer quantized. with a bottle, you're committing to those 12 ounces. if it's midnight and you should be going to bed, you may logically tell yourself "i'm not going to open a whole bottle, so i'll skip it." kegged beer is continuous: you can serve yourself as much, or as little, as you want. so you can go for that midnight half-pour... which sometimes turns into another... then a three-quarters pour... then...
I am trying to do this on the cheap as parts and things come up on Craig's list often. There are people selling completes, but seems like I can put together a lot of the components on the cheap and just buy some new tubing.
yup, that's the way to do it. another source of deals (sometimes even free stuff - someone gave away 2 kegs last week) is the DC Homebrewers FB page. join it, you'll like it.
What would be some recommendations and absolute musts when it comes to starting out kegging your homebrew
As long as I get a fridge that will fit this...is this all I need
https://beveragelements.com/beverage_elements_shop/kits/keg-kits/kegging-kit-reconditioned-5-gallon-ball-lock-keg-5-lb-co2-cylinder-all-accessories/
yup, that's what you need. hopefully you're not considering that specific package, pretty sure you can get those parts cheaper.
I think the goal is to have two kegs, so manifold, another keg and some more tubing
Seems like a no brainer to go quick connect too
you must use quick disconnects but something to keep in mind is that at the homebrew level, kegs come in two flavors: pin-lock and ball-lock. pin-lock connectors will not fit on ball-lock kegs, and vice-versa. so when you start your journey, you need to choose one format or the other. pin-locks are generally cheaper, but not always. ball-lock have the advantage of their lids having pressure release valves (PRVs). it's a nice-to-have, but you can release pressure in pin-locks via the gas-in post. you just need to use something like a screwdriver, a screw, or anything else hard and pointed to depress the middle of the gas-in post.
Obvisouly no tap out the top, but that adds a lot to the cost/complexity and maybe that's a 2022 goal
if you don't want to go the whole tower-on-top route, you can potentially mount the taps on the front and/or side of the kegerator:
pic 1,
pic 2 (not not freeze your glassware!)
depending how DYI you wanna get, you may want to consider building a keezer instead:
pic 1,
pic 2. you use a freezer instead of a fridge. the benefit is that freezers can be bigger, and generally are better shaped fo holding more kegs. i can only fit 2 kegs in my fridge, but could easily fit 3 or 4 in the same-sized freezer because of the collar you need to build.
last thing to be aware of:
cornelius kegs, AKA "cornies", AKA 5-gallon homebrew kegs, are a slowly disappearing breed. the big soda companies used to distribute their concentrated syrup in them, so they were manufactured by the boatload. they switched to plastic containers in the late 90's IIRC and haven't been produced on a mass scale since. you can buy new kegs but they're expensive, easily over $100 each whereas you can get a used one for under $50 if you shop around and/or are patient.
just realized that the above-linked wikipedia article contains pretty much all the info i typed above. yeay.
lemme know if you have any other questions (or, just ask wikipedia i guess...)
